You have nothing to lose when you’re a night one boot on a not-so-beloved bizarre spin-off series. The Bachelor: Listen to Your Heart eliminated contestant Mr. Clean Lite, aka Josh Hester, takes his cue to call out production.
Find yourself not really caring about The Bachelor: Listen to Your Heart whatsoever? Here’s more content! Remember the hot bald guy who was eliminated night one? According to said contestant, Josh Hester, the word “eliminated” is a very loose term.
A now-deleted Instagram photo (fret not, sleuths on Reddit grabbed a screenshot per usual) of Hester casually flipping off the camera whilst surrounded by rose emojis had a telling caption: “Just a little message to ABC for not airing the real reason for why I left ‘Listen To Your Heart.‘” Extremely casual message, Josh. Here’s what apparently went down that led to this bizarre bad blood.
In an exclusive with Life & Style, Hester revealed the “truth,” which is for some reason suddenly very important. Despite being seemingly eliminated at the first rose ceremony, Hester’s witness testimony tells a different story. According to Hester, he (somewhat) left the show on his own volition.
While viewers saw Mel Taevin give her rose to Gabe Baker, this allegedly was not her first pick. In fact, she initially offered the rose to Hester – who casually rejected the offer. Why you may ask? Welcome to the stage, meddling pot-stirrer Julia Rae! Hester claims he had a “much stronger connection than what was aired” with respect to Rae, noting “that wasn’t just some random kiss at the end.” So much so, he alleges he told her he would not accept a rose from anyone else.
The subsequent series of events, per Hester, was left on the production’s cutting room floor.
"During the rose ceremony, Mel offered me a rose. I didn’t move for, like, 10 seconds … I didn’t know what to do. Finally, I walked down and stood in front of her. She asked if I would accept this rose. I said, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t,’ and walked back to where I was standing."
Hester remained firm in that he “wasn’t going to break word to Julia” to simply “stay” on the show.
This apparently did not go over well with Papa Chris. Upon Hester’s rejection of Taevin’s rose, Chris Harrison essentially roasted Hester, declaring, ‘”well, I guess Josh just showed us all love is a two-way street.’” Hester proceeded to then effectively blacklist himself indefinitely by revealing producers simply, “had Mel pick another guy.” This is when we picked back up as viewers and watched her (now-seemingly random) pick Baker.
Hester’s story reveals yet another irritating part of the storyline that is Julia’s meltdown – SHE DIDN’T EVEN NEED TO PUT SHERIDAN THROUGH ANY OF THIS. While Sheridan is one of my favorites, it’s clear that his feelings for Rae are not reciprocated, and it’s genuinely sad to watch. Julia has made it seem like she was handcuffed to him night one, yet she had a viable option in Hester, one she probably had much more chemistry with. To be fair, producers may have been waving a big ‘X’ behind his bald head by the time Julia approached the podium.
While Hester doesn’t regret his decisions, he may regret this gossip sesh when the contestants all sign deals with Sugar Bear Hair. To be fair, he wouldn’t exactly have anything to advertise anyways.
Do you care about a narrative that never made it past night one, ever? Think Hester is justified in his grievances against production? Let us know your thoughts!